 Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/paper-2/8/b/ii/solution

Codex  0 Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20

tr (S A) = tr ((S A)^{T}) = tr (A^{T} S^{T}) = - tr (A S) = - tr (S A) .

Therefore

tr (S A) = 0

. The negative sign comes from

A^{T} = - A

, while

S^{T} = S

 New to topics? Read the docs here!